The use of computer systems and computer-related technologies continues to increase at a rapid pace. This increased use of computer systems has influenced the advances made to computer-related technologies. Indeed, computer systems have increasingly become an integral part of the business world and the activities of individual consumers. Computer systems may be used to carry out several business, industry, and academic endeavors.
One or more computer systems may be managed by a server. In some instances, a host computer software program may run on a computer system that is managed by the server. The host program may interact with external network connections. For example, the program may interact with the Internet. In some instances, a program may be a malware application that performs malicious activity on the host computer system. Malware may be software that is designed to infiltrate or damage the computer system. Examples of malware may include computer viruses, worms, trojan horses, spyware, and other malicious and unwanted software.
Some of these malware applications connect to a random Internet site to receive instructions and/or download a malicious payload to execute on the host computing device. Currently, prevention systems wait until the malicious payload is downloaded by the malware application and executed on the host device before reacting. Blacklists are currently used to list websites that host malicious files and payload for malware. However, because the malware connects to a random website, it is virtually impossible to block the correct website before the malware connects to the domain to download the malicious payload. As a result, current prevention systems do not block the website until the payload has been downloaded by at least one computing device that hosts the malware application. As such, benefits may be realized by improved systems and methods for automatically blacklisting an Internet domain based on monitored activities of an application.